rapturerebornmmorpgfandomcom-20200216-history
Part 87
Sitemap --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- - More interesting items/ideas for a Bioshock Rapture MMORPG ''' --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- - Part 87 --- --- --- --- --- '''Less Dependancy on Audio Diary (Game Mechanism) : The MMORPG's Mission scenarios can have all kinds/types of clues to tell their story - like more paper messages/documents/witnesses(testimony and question answering), etc... The Bioshock games kind-of overdid the use of the Accu-Vox mechanism, and they (Devs) may not have wanted (or even cared) to add a proper document view interface, or any other-than-blatantly-obvious story materials (we saw some (blurry) newspapers and various signs and scrawlings and those far too neat blackboards). There is that one BaS situation where the trapped guy ("Insufficient Postage " - Postage Due...) says he is sending AccuVox through the Pneumo to request help - that is pretty rediculous when a paper note would be more normal/logical. Phones no longer working? - oh, cut off cuz Fontaine's is 'sunk' - then shouldn't the Pneumo be cutoff then also ?? Anyway, the MMORPG can do it better with full range of appropriate props to help with storytelling. Subtle - can't have subtle ? Well you could have some hints which wouldn't impair the plot, but clever players might spot them (and care/appreciate) -- its called "story on several levels". The MMORPG can afford to have a wider spectrum. Well crafted Missions can have optional aspects which interested Players can investigate further. "Question Answering" mentioned above could imply something like what they had in LA Noir, a whole game mechanism where the Player interrogates information sources, and gets different responses depending on questioning tactics and other factors (like bribes... or threats). The Mission's outcome might then be made possible/easier by how good the player gets at the information interview process (which can include already having sufficient corroborating information to know the right questions to ask). Still its would be much like the LA Noir game's canned menu option system and dialog trees (as freeform Question & Answers is a bit much - very hard and costly to program). There would be the Templating and Asset Creation mechanisms, allowing incremental improvement through author collaboration (some people are good at writing believable story dialog...). The somewhat subtle facial clues which made that game exceptional would take real skill to create (like visual recording/mapping the voice actors for animations -- was pretty sophisticated) . --- --- --- New and Improved Accu-Vox : The NEW Rapture Accu-Vox Magnetic Media (recording) is a small 3" wide metal disk (nice and rugged and justifies a 'short' message), instead of that whole absurd integrated recorder device the size of a lunch-pail. SO you NOW can keep a whole stack of the 'disks' in your pocket (including having your favorite short songs... (Fontaine created the Accu-Vox, but Fritz X created the 'MagnoDisk' and its player, and cleaned up in Rapture's recording market). Big Daddies may have had a built-in player for the MagnoDiscs in their suit so they could listen to music while they worked ... "Sing Along With Mr Bubbles"... - For a remake of Infinite:BS (done right using the MMORPG's mechanism/tools/Player Creators) - The Audio Diaries would be a similarly SEPERATE record media (the inside edge of a 'cup' would be a neat solution to make them robust - something like the original cylinders 1908recordings.jpg), instead of that 'pretty' mostrosity you are supposed to use/carry around (and which are strewn about the terrain) with that stupidly exposed record. To play them, I would instead have numerous listening stations left over from the days when Columbia was a 'Show Case City' Worlds Fair/Exposition, and were used for self-guided audio tours. For various official events, Old newspapers you find blowing about your feet or stuffed in those countless trashbins. Handwritten notes and other types of documents on corpses to tell the 'big story' narrative. At some point you might get(buy) a portable player 20sMikiPhone.jpg. - Infinite :BS had those individual rediculous Voxophone "recorders", which aren't even the right kind of mechanism to MAKE recordings, AND are perfectly shaped to destroy their exposed records... Nah, Im just too logical. But then, we invoke the magic word 'Cuz' and sprinkle on some pixie dust -- BETTER might have been the Player talking into a Fink Mfg. 'Recording Orb' (pretty glowey thing that pulses with the sound stolen from the Fonzy Dimension) or other whizbang fantasy technology -- hey you know quantum particles can do anything .... Im sure Fink could invent it in an afternoon and have it for sale the next day.... Hmm... You drink a potion and the thoughts start to circle your head in a pretty multi-hued lightshow ... With ghostly voices intoning/chanting the message with guaranteed preservation for eternity... Why be mechanicly absurd and have it be so mundane, when such Infinite possibilities (and special effects) are possible ??? Lets make it so : Fink stole the ADAM secrets, improved them, and grew wonderous Carrots that could remember messages.... We could have had an interesting freakshow that would have had the Players wondering what they would find around every next corner... As Steve Martin would have said -- Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.... --- --- Computer Assisted Publishing in Rapture : Come 3 Decades early (it revolutionized publishing in our world) - would justify production of the many different newspapers/magazines/books -- being economically viable to compose/print/sell when Rapture is really a fairly small market (low-ish circulation counts). Simple text type computer displays would be used (even just teletypes), rather than the graphical ones we have these days. A good use for small computer systems (it justifies size of the Minervas Den facilities/companies). For post-Chaos Rapture, mimeograph machines (and public posting boards) might be the source of many ad hoc publications. Player Assets of this type would be logical (the Tools exist and many players know how to use them), both as props for the various missions, but also Community creations to help fill out the games environment. Lack of polish for such media would be appropriate in the New Rapture situation. --- --- --- "Strange Figures, Weird Figures..." (heard from the ghost of Groucho Marx) : You (as a previous BS1/BS2 game Player) are asked at some point in the MMORPG game (maybe even on creating your Game Account) *IF* you killed Stanley Poole, Gil Alexander, Sander Cohen, Grace Holloway and how many Little Sisters, BDs, etc... (need an option for "Didn't Play" BS1/BS2/MD also). SO that data is used to somehow have impact on your game experience. Strange would be a customized perception of your character (Reason : you are still a bit crazy from you previous Splicer existance - leftovers "The Cure" couldn't fully undo). Alternate event arcs or just subtle variations of things you see/hear in the game. Impressive would be REAL repercussions for your previous 'Moral Choices' (probably not detrimental/advantageous as Players would soon figure it out, and post the 'best' options to pick on the Internet). Variations on : Flashback events, your strange Ex-Splicer dream sequences, "Ghost Stories" (the ADAM hallucinations), differentiated Audio Diaries - to reflect the outcomes of your 'previous' actions. Too Subtle ? But then this MMORPG could take things MUCH further than the shoot-em-up games did... Some similar things might reflect on your actions in the MMORPG (if you maim/kill a Splicer you have nightmares or somesuch). If thats too demanding for integrating into the main game (it IS alot of coordination effort, but then alot of this game's stuff is...), such material could just be included as follow-on stories of the Solo games plots. The Players could playthrough as part of the whole Rapture Universe™, incorporated into the MMORPG (Seriously, it just takes a handful of creative players to create things like this - particularly if they are enabled by the game's Creation Tools and the bulk of stuff (all the Objects and Templates) others have already created). Having them seperate in reality from the MMORPG plotline allows them to go off in strange and amusing directions -- THE Very Artistic Freedom Which Ryan Talked About (how's that for meta-level game theming...) - Imagine redoing the Solo games plots EXCEPT with REAL repercussions for your (and others) actions (as in REAL Morale Choice -- not watered down gorp) : - Kill a LS and Tenenbaum abandons you. - You DON'T kill Grace (you MUST SAVE ELEANOR (!!) and its best to leave no enemy behind...) and then if you don't, she marshals all her minions to swarm you ... - Playing through the whole game(s) without/fewer(found) Plasmids (LS-NoKill) to get the 'good' endings... - Alternate paths to achieve the plot goals (Poole forces you to kill BDs - you have no choice if you want the game to move forward) ... - You figure out Atlas is 'playing you' as a sucker early, and you fight against your conditioning. - AT the End its YOUR hands around Sofia Lamb's throat and YOUR decision ... - You let Ryan live (or he doesn't Surrender Monkey and lets you loose against Fontaine) etc... (so much potential) --- --- --- Find The Way Through (Turned About) : Interesting thing they added in BS2 was your ability of building your defenses for the 'Gathering' or 'The Big Bad Sister is Coming' and the "Obtain the LS Big Daddy Ambush' (and if you get bored 'Fun Play with the Splicers'). Sometimes made quickly and on-the-fly, and other times with some long preparation (didn't you hate when Splicers would start to respawn that would disrupt your carefully placed traps ??). pix of boom room In the MMORPG you now can have a Residence, a Store, a camp out in the Ruins, a salvage site, a Team Base, which you might protect with defenses "in depth" against who-knows-what might come crawling out-of-the-woodwork (or the odd 'battle' with hastily deployed defensive measures or rearguard tactics). Various assortments/kinds of countermeasures to deploy... Your Residence in New Rapture (or in its outskirts) would be most permanent and warrant investment to protect its contents (from criminals in the city and the odd Splicer invasion). Nice 'genetic' locks can still be 'hacked' and outright open robbery isn't impossible (as well as the more typical leaks, fires, accidental munitions explosions). Your 'Team' NPC Base is where you store your equipment, tools, loot, and fabricating materials, likewise is a permanent location needing some protective measures. A Mission Base out in the 'unsettled' parts of Rapture, can still be made reasonably secure with a little effort, though Splicers can be very creative and do the unexpected (and they can even just 'mess with you' because they are bored). Picking a good spot with the best defensive opportunities, is an important factor. Even a fairly temporary salvage site can be subject to ambush, calling for temporary defensive countermeasures, but often relying more on personnel reaction. Sometimes, just being as unnoticeable as possible works. Consider that Splicers aren't stupid (will be as smart as the Player AI Programmerss can make them) and neither always disorganized (these aren't your Fathers 'Splicers...). They can be as clever as anyone, and you can face their similar 'defenses', as you do your adventuring out there... --- --- And Anudder Asset : Rugs/Carpets/Wall-Hangings/Drapes (Wallpapers) Repeating/symetrical patterns. Simplest is mostly a 2D Texture, created for a standard template outline/spacing and possible some shadow-mapped material effect for textured surfaces. Can have lotsa fun with 'stain' decaling too - that rug is only burned on the edge , so its perfectly fine... The Auto-Generation mechanism used to create Rapture scenery would heavily use a whole spectrum of such 'decals'. A nifty techno gimick product in Rapture might have been Kaleidoscope Rugs (bio-fluorescence) which would be simple fractal textures. --- --- "Trank" (Tranquilizer) Bolts : Would make sense in BS1/BS2, except the game's slaughtering was 'important' (might as well had bolts with dynamite strapped to them -- though blowing bits off Splicers would have broken their Animation budget, and made the fake violence too 'real' maybe). For Pre-Civil-War Rapture, such an immediate sedation-causing item probably would have been created for use against agitated/disorderly Splicers, who were becoming more trouble as time went on (years 1952-1958). Crude Crossbows are fairly easy (cheap/low-tech) to fabricate. Once apprehended, if the perp hadn't committed a felony, they would likely 'sleep it off' in the Druggy Tank at the local Security Center Jail (or the new consolidated facility at Persephone for repeat offenders). The gas bolt things are a bit too arbitrary (as the Germans learned in WW1 -- gas has a tendency to blow where you DON'T want it, and/or requires the users gasmask use, which has its own problems). Grenades for this purpose are probably simpler for certain situations. For the alarm distracter thingy bolt, you would think it wouldn't be effective after a perp had seen it once previously. And it might be wholey ineffective on a crazed Splicer who already hears strange things in his head. Flash-Bang stun effects (sensory overload) would be better for many situations. --- --- THE ANSWER : Columbia (and all that) is (Rapture Citizen) Elizabeth Comstock's Splicer-hallucination - after partaking of so many of Sander Cohen's Plasmid "cocktails". How else do you explain all the weird fantasy stuff you saw there in that game ? Elizabeth was 'flying' and so saw a crazy flying city. --- --- --- '-OR- The Raptureverse ....' RetCon Rapture is simplest to explain -- NOT Prime, just some alternate universe where things were stupider. "Retroactive continuity, or 'retcon' for short, is the alteration of previously established facts in the continuity of a fictional work." --- --- --- Computer History Museum at Minervas Den (Extended Lobby) : - The living SlugBrain in a bio Tube component which didn't quite work (unstable, went insane)... - First Transistor made in Rapture 1948 (heard about it in the Surface Scientific Journals) - A display demonstrating how much faster the AE trains moved across the City when The Thinker did 'smart' train routing to keep them rolling without waiting for trafic or unneeded stops ... - McClendon's First Robot (made up in the Surface World before he came to Rapture - a Robot Bartender... - Similar 'smart' pre-dispatching of empty Bathyspheres to various stations to meet expected/predicted needs, and efficiently load-leveling of traffic via redundant routes. - Film loop showing a 'computer operator' constantly changing burnt out Electron Vacuum Tubes in the old computers. Explanation shows how the new computers are failure-resistant. Another Film-loop shows a US Miltary Computer console with its built-in Cigarette Lighter and Ashtray (they really had those). - History of the WW2 Enigma Coding Machine and Abacus and early computers (the usual predecessor stuff you find in a typical computer museum) - usually toured by school children in Rapture. - Recordings of The Thinker singing "Bicycle Built For Two" (HAL 9000 reference...) - Window view into a manufacturing facility for the Bio-Electronic and Transistor components and circuits used in Rapture. Explanations of how the circuits are 'trained' seem to have been designed specifically to "bore the paint off a wall". - A computer game that plays tic-tac-toe. Another that by using words/text descriptions, you move about and have adventures in some fantasy flying city. - A movie "2002 A Space Sojourn", done by Sander Cohen, which was not really that good, but includeed an artificially intelligent computer called "Logical Louie", who always seemed to be cracking bad jokes about rabbits, and had a psychodelic lightshow to represent aliens or something... Seriously, The museum was needed even IF the $5 tour wasn't just to see the statue (in old tours you got to see 'The Core' with all its electric arcing nonsense, flashing lights and 'Great Oz' like presentation.) --- --- --- --- No, Sinclair Never Had a Sinclair Spirits in Paupers Drop : 'Canon'? Allegely based on an Audio Diary never used in the actual game ... Uh, No. It made no sense in the game (Paupers Drop setting and story) as presented, which may have been the reason it was intentionally discarded. So there is no 'evidence' that it existed in the actual game, just that they had contemplated and even gone far enough to create that Asset and then decided not to use it - its like all the notes a Composer scratches out of their work's musical score (or even ones they tear up or burn) - they are NOT the final product as intended to be presented to the audience. Sinclair is also not 'cheating' people out of their money (the non-existant liquor store adjunct to the Sinclair Deluxe to debilitate the 'fat cats') unless you think that 'giving people what they want' is cheating them. Discount Booze being sold by him to keep his renters captive ? They can buy cheap booze ANYWHERE (like the Limbo Room) - alcohol was all over Rapture. Sinclair understands that people have delusions/flaws, but that only makes opportunities, and it is shown that he is good at beating out other people to making business from those opportunities. He does it by making the better deal. Remember the guy Sinclair's company has doing piecemeal work assembling syringes What_a_Snap which offsets Profit_Coming,_Profit_Going (usually pointed to as some kind of evidence of Sinclair being 'dishonest' or whatever). If you know anything about real business, you realize those tiny viewpoint vignettes distort/leave out most of the details of such a business relation : The risks and expenses Sinclair takes, The fact that he's giving that guy a flexible job he might not otherwise have, All the other aspects of the business transaction with Ryan's company that Sinclair has to work to arrange and organize. It is the same stupid one-dimensionalism with everything they (game writers) show of Sinclair (and Ryan too) in the game, and the vagueness/lack of detail for so many other aspects (its a FPS, though it was sure hyped as if it was something more ... 'story' ... yada yada yada).. But being a 'game' (Just a game), realistic factors (like the above) are mostly ignored to make out Sinclair as a cardboard cutout villain/shady character for a story in what first-and-foremost is a shoot-em-up game. --- --- Booker, Catch !!! : And Elizabeth threw the handful of coins at Booker who (unlike her, had not spent years of time repeatedly doing the trick of catching a pile of coins) in surprised dropped his gun, which as it hit the ground went off, putting a bullet into Elizabeth's head (which Booker could tell by the look on her face was a surprise). So now Booker, calculating and figuring that "bring us the girl" had never actually specified that she be alive, dragged her corpse towards ... Having a bottle of 'Salts' (or heavy box of ammo) smack Booker in the head when he was too busy shooting at the Guard running at him to look... Booker!!! Ammunition Crate !!! .... BONK!!! --- --- --- Prentice Mill Memorial (Paupers Drop) - The Man Who Built The Railraod That Built Rapture : If he had lived in Paupers Drop ( likely at the Sinclair Deluxe -- before it got rundown by 'the Family's' running the place) Mill still could have been the richest person there. Was he really 'poor', as the loans of his cash reserves were unlikley to be unsecured (he would hold mortgages and such that could be sold later after that 'recession' was over - that is sometime around 1952). It is possible Mill may have funded some of the area's redevelopment (in conjunction with Sinclair) of that 'under the tracks' (slum/work camp/Hooverville-like) location to get what we saw in BS2 - Art Deco city building recreations and businesses (afterwards run down to the ruins/refugee camp seen in BS2). It may have been more that HIS Atlantic Express passenger system had been sidestepped/obsoleted by the more flexible consolidated Metro Trolley system, and to a much less extent by the Bathyspheres (which most people couldn't afford to use on a daily basis - THEY were NOT the equivalent of automobiles). The AE train line we use in BS2 was still there many years later (so Mill could have "played trains" with that remaining minor branch line) but his Great Project was basicly gone from his control (even though the AE system still probably would operate as Raptures major Freight transport - similar to the way American Railroads ditched their passenger business as unprofitable around the same time). Did he commit suicide ? Perhaps he did, or perhaps he didn't. It doesn't actually say in the game. Or was the ad hoc shrine just regard from ex-employees -- current (or whenever) local residents (possibly in contension with Lamb's collectivist agenda) for his building of the 'Railroad that Built Rapture' and for employing them. --- --- Strange Movie (Produced in Rapture) : Tesla and Edison fighting with big mechanical suits back in 1900, but finally team up to defeat invading Martians. - Low budget (cheap costumes and special effects - Rapture's market wasn't that large and even in OUR larger world such cheap productions were common). This Particular Movie probably fed the rumors of Ryan wandering the mean streets of Rapture in an Ironman suit, thwarting Criminals and Parasites (Ironman wasn't invented til 1963, unless it happened in Rapture earlier ??? Possibly some vision brought on by a combination of Brainboost and bad clams....) Heh - "Bad Clams" - sounds like a good name for an Underground Rock-N-Roll band (underground not because it was illegal, but because it would have the element of 'misbehaving'/illicit for teenagers by being "underground"...). The impact on teenagers of Rapture's "Freedom" wasn't really touched upon (more meat for the MMORPG). --- --- Elizabeth's Reading Material : Why in Elizabeth's tower does she have all those distracting books/activities, instead of materials/props put there specifically by Comstock to mould/brainwash/prepare her into becoming Columbia's Comstock heir/successor ? She could have obtained them via Tears (except wouldn't she simply have left her 'cage' if she could do that ?) or had Songbird pilfer them for her. But then her handlers/minders could have removed them just as easily (or better - substituted boring nonesense), the way she was (shown) being thoroughly monitored/observed. It might have been a more interesting game (though more work/skill) for Elizabeth to unwittingly mouth racisms and rote-learned 'white privilege' reactions, which she was trying to break out of. But then, thats too easy to misunderstand for the typical player demographic (too deep, and when they couldn't even bother to get recoil effects for the guns done right). --- --- Fonts Asset Type : Used for various auto-generation of game Assets (versus static Assets, which still might need 'authorized' Fonts used by the Creation Tools to prevent Font set copyright issues.) Fonts created by Players (and not EVERYTHING has to be Art Deco) could get pass legal hurdles. --- --- Radio Free Rapture : Story about Splicers making Crystal Radios (no tubes or electricity/batteries needed) tapping into the cable radio network (which Rapture had, since Radio waves travel so poorly through water). Radio traffic Assets (now with Splicer weirdness) could be an added aspect for the MMORPG. And being audio and garbled (hmm, add Tools to create proper sounding garbling/distortion effects...) are more a function of good writing to produce. --- --- Popular Game in Rapture "Settlers of Rapture" : No, the popular hex-based Catan game won't be a Mini-game in the MMORPG (copyright issues are questionable, but won't stop Hungry Hungry Lawyers (hmm.. ryanish worry...) from causing money-wasting legal issues). Thought maybe the owners of that franchise might offer their version of "Settlers of Rapture" (licenced from the MMORPG owners.) A vague satire/takeoff of an Ad mentioning it might be seen somewhere (just like a Rapture version of Monopoly). --- --- Watson and Crick Did Not Identify the Structure of the DNA Molecule until 1953 : Which unless Rapture's Science was accelerated well beyond what was happening on the Surface, the genetic work would have been done without the chemical understanding of the basic chemistry involved. Early Plasmids/Tonics may have been more tissue development using surgery to locally apply/implant them to Humans, rather than the "Drink/Inject This" automatc/self-administered mechanism we saw in the game. Stem Cell stimulation/regeneration would be possible without too much additional control to genetically modify anything. Direct genetic manipulation could then have come later to justify what we saw in 1960, and even then many of the Plasmids/Tonics we never used could still be based on that other mechanism (and who says Jack didn't come 'preinstalled', armed for his intended mission ??). The ADAM you got in the game itself may have been a 'booster' to activate/maintain the effect (and the lack of regular doses of ADAM then leading to breakdown and systemic disruptions). --- --- Electric Golf Cart "Craze" in Rapture : After seeing (in my level maps) the lengths of some of the Viaduct walkways (and the 'Streets'), which must've been common between many buildings in Rapture, there is a gap in the transport system for those who want more convenience than frequently walking the equivalent of several city blocks. Bathyspheres/Submersibles would NOT be the equivalent of our real world automobiles (too much facility overhead with whats been seen - no door-to-door service is really possible and no common driveways or street parking), so if you used them (or the Atlantic Express) you STILL frequently had alot of distance to walk (even with the Trolley Transit system, with its more frequently placed stops). So, intermediate methods for middle distances would have been likely/wanted - conveyances (besides bicycles) like electric carts, or in some places moving walkways (Heck, moving walkways were part of the World Exposition in 1893). Businesses could provide 'shuttles' for their preferred customers. Hmmm.... motorized Unicycles ... (fits in a briefcase) --- --- You want a Happy Story - Heres a Happy Story : Lets add to the 'wonders' of Columbia the Lutece Regenerative Machine (LRM) which used Lutece Particles to pull energy from a different dimension (probably eventually killing everyone over on the other side) which then could be used to power their various other 'wonder-devices'. Unfortunately, in the various multiple parallel dimensions where this was attempted, the devices (having to maintain an open Tear continually) malfunctioned, went Out Of Control™, and caused a rip in dimensional continuum reality. Not only were countless people exposed now to dimensions where they were dead (or worse, mimes), but also ones where they never existed -- causing their heads to explode. The open Tears then absorbed further 'Lutece' energy, and expanded/collapsed until they simultaneously contained the dimensions they bridged, now completely devoid of life. Its only a matter of time for the entire continuum to collapse - obliteration. Did you ever wonder what happened in the other dimensions where 'the coin' DIDNT come up 'Heads' ???? Now you know. The Luteces have much to answer for. --- --- Astrology in Rapture : People can believe in what they want in Rapture. Would be a good 'different' setting for a business with some strange props with the proprietor looking just like Epstein The Swami... We saw the Saturnines and their Astrological/Alchemical scrawlings in Arcadia. Question is - did this get started before the ADAM insanity. Those convenient caves they used were originally for something else (My Extended Level Arcadia map turned it into The Colossal Cave underground park - with extensive artificial caverns -- real ones tend to leak too much.) Tarot Parlour - Madam Blavatsky proprietor, and 'path to the eternal other' 'Channeling the Great Chain'. Even Charlatans can forsee the possibility of the world blowing itself up and "get out of Dodge"... Age of Aquarius ??? That supposedly starts around 2600 AD - so there really isn't any need to rush. But since there are varying opinions on that, then anyone can pretty much makeup whatever they want. --- --- --- The (Extended) Story of Minervas Den : A theoretical organization of the computer/tech facility under Reed Wahl : How would the place continue to exist while Rapture fell into Chaos around it ? Note - Lamb obviously did NOT control all of Rapture (a simple counter-example IS Minervas Den). A supply of the advanced Security Fly-Bots and Lancer "Terminators" probably assisted in keeping that (and such systems could have been sold to others in Rapture). The Workers : - Programmers - quite a bit more esoteric than what we think of. Using computer 'languages' (known as Autocodes) which were only starting during this period (and were usually proprietary/limited). - Support staff, Food preparation, Laundry - Secretarial staff, Keypunches still used to input programs by keypunch operators. - Managers (a REAL pointy-headed boss now) - Boffins and Engineers, Scientists, Systems Designers, White collar office workers, brainiacs (guys with the pocket protectors) - IT (Infomation Technology) Guys, people who run/worship the computers - Guy who refills the vending machines (and empties the bottle returns) - Maintenance Workers for the buildings and facilities, Facilities Maintainers/Repairers. - Transport - goods coming from outside Minervas Den - Food and other necessaries need to come in. - Janitors - largely replaced by Robots (nobody now has to "scrub the toilets") - Security Men (guys who sit and check badges) - Salesmen and Marketeers, Tech Support (business kindof fell off with the Civil War) - Interns and Assistants/Go-fers Minervas Den interfaced with Smuggler groups and other Factions in the City - obtaining various goods/services to keep the Minerva's Den people alive via trading useful machines and compter services. The maintainance and continuing work on computer technology (just from habit/inertia) would require some replacement parts and materials not available in Rapture (or precautions were being taken to prevent such). The latest technical information from the Surface would be in high demand. Deals would be made with various Factions for 'services rendered'. Robotic defense/security systems would still be in demand - manufactured and repairs/parts. Communications services provided, etc... Local ADAM production (and lesser ADAM use for Plasmids) may have lessened somewhat the destabilization of the Minervas Den population. --- --- --- . . .